Biotech industry surging in Maryland

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Maryland's bioscience industry is moving beyond its traditional research role and reaching for commercial success on par with the highly successful biotech sectors in San Francisco and Boston.
This year marked significant progress for the state's biotech industry as it starts to develop new drugs, increase venture capital investment and move out of the shadows of the region's powerful academic and federal research facilities, such as the National Institutes of Health and Johns Hopkins University.
"What we saw this year was more companies turn the corner, not in terms of drug approvals, but in terms of receiving significant money and the realization of new drugs coming to market," said Bob Eaton, president of MdBio Foundation, the trade association representing the biotech companies.
Biotechnology drugs are the most expensive drugs on the market and cost in the billions of dollars to produce and market. Biological drugs include antibodies, oncology treatments and vaccines and are created from living organisms, unlike pharmaceutical drugs that are synthetically manufactured.

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